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Tylenol Ingredient Reduces Psychological Stress

Written by Nina Lincoff
| Published on April 18, 2013

An over-the-counter drug to treat social and existential anxiety? It's not too good to be true.

These days, you can walk into a drug store and find a cure for almost
anything that ails you, especially if you have a prescription. But even
if it’s not prescribed by a doctor, from cough syrup to allergy
medication, there are plenty of over-the-counter (OTC) treatments
available.

One of the most ubiquitous is Tylenol, one of many
options available for general relief of pain and headaches. What
differentiates Tylenol from other options, like Advil or ibuprofen, is
the ingredient acetaminophen.
And while acetaminophen provides a good fix for a stubbed toe, it may
also offer psychological relief for feelings of anxiety and social
rejection. Not bad for an OTC drug.

Researchers from the
University of British Columbia conducted two studies with more than 300
participants to test their theory that a dose of acetaminophen can
neutralize anxiety cues from the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex
(dACC), the part of the brain that responds to social and physical pain.

Their work was recently published in Psychological Science, and
while these findings won't result in an acetaminophen-based
anti-anxiety medication any time soon, they've uncovered yet another use
for Tylenol.

The study authors knew that acetaminophen could dull
reactions to physical pain and were curious to see if it produced a
similar effect in participants experiencing unsettling feelings of
social anxiety or contemplating mortality.

“Physical pain and
social rejection share a neural process and subject component that are
experienced as distress,” the study authors wrote. As it turns out,
acetaminophen, even in a non-prescription dose, dulls feelings of
anxiety and psychological responses to questions about life and death.

The researchers chose unsettling questions about death and the surrealist works of filmmaker David Lynch (Twin Peaks, Mulholland Dr.,
etc.) to provide participants with a controlled, but particularly
unsettling study experience. Acetaminophen, it turns out, was effective
in dulling emotional reactions to what Lynch had in store in his
short-film Rabbits.

The Anxiety of…David Lynch?

More
than 300 student participants were recruited and offered either $15 or
course credit for their time. In two different studies, participants
were either given 1,000 mg of Tylenol-brand acetaminophen or a placebo,
both packed in gel capsules. Because acetaminophen is hard to detect if a
user isn’t actively experiencing physical pain, study subjects were
unaware of which they took.

In the first study, 121 participants
were asked to write two paragraphs about their feelings on death and
then to respond to a hypothetical situation in which they judged the
bail amount set for a prostitute. In the second study, 207 participants
watched either a David Lynch movie—typically disturbing—or a benign
video clip and then judged the punishment handed down for local
rioters.

Both studies required participants to consider their
mortality. And the Tylenol? It was effective in dulling the emotional
reactions of participants who had to consider their mortality or watch a
Lynch film, indicating that an OTC dose of acetaminophen is effective
in limiting dACC reaction and feelings of anxiety.

“[Participants
in the mortality-salience condition who had taken acetaminophen
responded in ways similar to those who had not contem­plated their
mortality. In the second study, this pattern of findings was replicated
using a surreal video clip,” the study authors concluded.

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